Had to get a mate to slap me around yesterday, after we heard media reports (Second hand) that a rider had died in an accident, when a 11 kva power pole was taken out by a van and fell in front of the rider, it hurt soooo either i missed sommit or the media did !
Sure it was a close call and the adrenylin levels were wayyy off the scales, but H and i are still here to tell the tale ! If the media have mixed reports and there was a rider fatallity yesterday, my sympathies to the family, but i'm just glad it wasn't me !
Had met up with the Plims to take a ride over the takas in memory of snake who passed away after an accident on the hill 20 yr ago.
My bike was being a bitch, as i had just done rear tyre, chain and sproket (had tried my hand at realigning the swingarm too) but fucked sommit up and there were some ugly noises coming from the drive train, which were gettin worse so had turned around on the hutt side of the haywards to head home and sort it, with Glen deciding he'd join me (On ya bro) !
Was heading back past judgeford golf course at a more subdued pace than usual and was just cruising along the straight, when i saw a van coming toward us that looked like it was veering off to take a driveway or something on our side at high speed, nadda, no driveway there, next thing this van is flipping sideways in the drain on our side and i'm on the pics thinking whoa he's fucked, wham straight into a high voltage power pole !
Thats where things went into slow mo, the pole just started tipping across the road in front of us as there was the tension of low voltage lines going straight across the road pulling it that way, Fucking pleased i'd just done the HD's brakes.
So here's me going sideways with Glen locked up behind me, released a bit to straigten up and on the front hard as, tapping the rear,
Well fuck me i was thinking it's over here, as i was sure the lines were gonna snap and take our heads off but they held as the pole bounced , near touching the road first time then bouncing twice more bungying on the tension of the 11kva wires !
Stopped at what must have been 3 metres from the pole with the HT wires above our heads that cant have been more than a few ft above, the only gap the pole had left across the road was taken up by dangling LT wires across the oncoming lane to the pole on the other side ! No way through there, glad i went for ankors rather than escape, they would have ripped us off the bike !
So heart racing i done a carefull Uturn under the wires and got us out of harms way and then everyone was on Cell phones and i was looking for a way to get to the guy in the van without going near them wires , yup they were pretty much at head hieght eeeeek , fuck we were lucky, could be the rubber stoped them arcing on to us or it just aint our time Meh Still here anyway !
Some bloke from the other side of the mess had got to the back of the van and opened it up and the driver walked away (lucky lucky boy !)
No way through this lot to head home so out with the tools on the side of the road and realigned the bike a bit to see if i could get rid of the drive train noise and then rode back toward the hutt to test it !
All good so carried on over the Takas to catch up with the others ! Great day to be alive by the way !
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